1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to ferromagnetic alloys characterized by a high saturation magnetization, and, in particular, to iron-boron solid solution alloys having a body centered cubic (bcc) structure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The equilibrium solid solubilities of boron in .alpha.-Fe (ferrite) and .gamma.-Fe (austenite) are quite small, being less than 0.05 and 0.11 atom percent, respectively; see M. Hansen et al., Constitution of Binary Alloys, pp. 249-252, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc. (1958). Attempts have been made to increase the solubility of boron in iron by a splat-quenching technique, without success; see, e.g., R. C. Ruhl et al., Vol. 245, Transactions of the Metallurgical Society of AIME, pp. 253-257 (1969). The splat-quenching employed gun techniques and resulted only in the formation of ferrite and Fe.sub.3 B, with no changes in the amount of austenitic phase. Compositions containing 1.6 and 3.2 wt.% (7.7 and 14.5 at.%, respectively) boron were prepared. These splat-quenched materials, as well as equilibrium alloys which contain two phases, are very brittle and cannot easily be processed into thin ribbons or strips for use in commercial applications.